bradley wiggins tour de france wins

Bradley Wiggins wins 2012 Tour de France as Cavendish takes final stage

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History has been made. Bradley Wiggins (Sky) won the 2012 Tour de France overall in Paris on Sunday, becoming the first British rider to take the victory in the most prestigious event in the cycling calendar. And team-mate Mark Cavendish took an unprecedented fourth consecutive win on the Champs Élysées to top off a remarkable Tour.

A chunk of Britain was transported to the iconic Champs Élysées, as Union-flag-waving fans turned out in force to celebrate what must rank as the country's greatest cycling triumph. And they were there to celebrate Britain's most accomplished all-round cyclist, who adds the yellow jersey to six Olympic medals, three of them gold.

Wiggins' Sky team-mate and fellow Brit Chris Froome finished in second place crowning what has been a dominant display by Team Sky over the past three weeks in France. Italian Vincenzo Nibali (Liquigas-Cannondale) finished third overall, six minutes and 19 seconds behind Wiggins. By his own admission, he was unable to compete with the Sky duo.

Defending champion Cadel Evans (BMC Racing) also suffered during the race, but hung on to a respectable seventh place overall.

Wiggins' Tour campaign has been faultless. After placing second behind Fabian Cancellara (RadioShack) in the opening prologue in Liege, Wiggins kept himself out of trouble in a crash-festooned first week. He then took charge of the overall classification after stage seven to La Planche des Belles Filles, and then took his first Tour stage win in the time trial two days later.

Wiggins' grip on the yellow jersey tightened in the Alps and Pyrenees, where the combined effort of Froome and Wiggins dispensed their rivals with an air of cool calm.

Any doubt of which of the two talented Britons should be leading Sky was dispelled on Saturday, when Wiggins obliterated the field in the final time trial, winning by well over a minute over Froome, who himself had put in a stellar ride to place well ahead of Luis Leon Sanchez (Rabobank).

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Final stage action

The day started in Rambouillet with the traditional final day procession featuring photo opportunities for the press and a tangible sense of relief from the remaining 153 riders in the race that they'd made it to Paris.

As soon as the riders hit the cobbles of the Champs Élysées the pace upped. With a flurry of attacks led by Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan). The German was eventually joined by ten other riders and they quickly opened up a gap of 30 seconds and sustained the advantage until the final 10 kilometres when only Voigt, Rui Costa (Movistar) and Sebastien Minard (Ag2r) remained.

Behind, a combination of Sky and Liquigas-Cannondale riders led the bunch to try and bring it all back together for a bunch sprint for Mark Cavendish and Peter Sagan respectively.

The escape were caught in the final few kilometres as Wiggins hit the front of the bunch to enormous cheers from the crowd. Wiggins blistering pace set up the Sky train to deliver Cavendish to his third stage win of the 2012 race, and his fourth consecutive victory on the Tour's final stage.

It was a very fitting end to a very British Tour, where the Brits won seven stages - a third of the total.

Green jersey sensation Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) finished in second place, with Australian Matt Goss (Orica-GreenEdge) in third.

A year of firsts

As well as this being Britain's first Tour win in the race's 99 editions, there are a number of other records set this year. Wiggins' win aside, Froome's second place is the first time that a Briton has stood on the second step of the podium at the Tour.

It's the first time that four different British riders - Wiggins, Froome, Cavendish and Millar - have won stages in the same edition of the race.

Wiggins sets a new British record for the most amount of days spent in the yellow jersey - 13. Incidentally, Britain becomes the 13th nation to provide a Tour de France winner.

Wiggins is also the first Olympic gold medallist to win the Tour overall. And now he goes into the London 2012 Games as outright favourite to win gold in the time trial event.

On stage 18, Cavendish equalled sprinter Andre Darrigade's stage win record set between 1953 and 1964 for a sprinter when he claimed his 22nd stage victory. Cavendish's 23rd stage win in Paris means he is now the Tour's most successful sprinter of all time. The outright record for most stage wins is held by Eddy Merckx, with 34 victories.

It was also a full set of firsts for the other classifications: Peter Sagan (Liquigas-Cannondale) took three stages and earned the green jersey in his debut Tour. Thomas Voeckler (Europcar) gave the home nation plenty to cheer about once again with two stage wins and the King of the Mountains title. American Tejay Van Garderen (BMC Racing) marked himself out as a future Grand Tour contender with solid rides in the mountains and time trials to win the youth classification.

RadioShack-Nissan won the team classification, some consolation for what has been a torrid Tour for the team that hit a low with the departure of Frank Schleck after he tested positive for a banned diuretic during the race.

As well as a Tour of firsts, it's a Tour of lasts - for George Hincapie (BMC Racing), Alexandre Vinokourov (Astana) and Jens Voigt (RadioShack-Nissan). All three veteran professionals have now completed their final Tour. In the case of Hincapie, he sets a new record of 17 participations and equalled Joop Zoetemelk's record of 16 Tour finishes.

Results Tour de France 2012, stage 20: Rambouillet to Paris, Champs-Élysées, 120km

1. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky in 3-08-07

2. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale

3. Matt Goss (Aus) Orica-GreenEdge

4. Juan Jose Haedo (Arg) Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank

5. Kris Boeckmans (Bel) Vacansoleil-DCM

6. Greg Henderson (NZl) Lotto-Belisol

7. Borut Bozic (Slo) Astana

8. Andre Greipel (Ger) Lotto-Belisol

9. Edvald Boasson Hagen (Nor) Sky

10. Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Saur-Sojasun all same time

54. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky at 9 secs

Final overall classification

1. Bradley Wiggins (GBr) Sky in 87-34-47

2. Chris Froome (GBr) Sky at 3-21

3. Vincenzo Nibali (Ita) Liquigas-Cannondale at 6-19

4. Jurgen Van den Broeck (Bel) Lotto-Belisol at 10-15

5. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing at 11-04

6. Haimar Zubeldia (Spa) Radioshack-Nissan at 15-41

7. Cadel Evans (Aus) BMC Racing at 15-49

8. Pierre Rolland (Fra) Europcar at 16-26

9. Janez Brajkovic (Slo) Astana at 16-33

10. Thibaut Pinot (Fra) FDJ-BigMat at 17-17

12. Nicolas Roche (Irl) Ag2r-La Mondiale at 19-33

35. Daniel Martin (Irl) Garmin-Sharp at 1-25-23

95. Stephen Cummings (GBr) BMC Racing at 2-47-03

106. David Millar (GBr) Garmin-Sharp at 2-55-24

142. Mark Cavendish (GBr) Sky at 3-28-36

Points competitions (green jersey)

1. Peter Sagan (Svk) Liquigas-Cannondale

King of the Mountains (polka-dot jersey)

1. Thomas Voeckler (Fra) Europcar

Youth classification (white jersey)

1. Tejay Van Garderen (USA) BMC Racing

Team classification

1. RadioShack-Nissan

British invasion of Paris

Richie Porte leads the way on the Champs Élysées

Mark Cavendish wins in Paris

Bradley Wiggins wins overall

Jersey winners (l to r): Sagan, Wiggins, Voeckler and Van Garderen

Tour de France 2012: Latest news

Cavendish recognises advantage in missed Tour chances ahead of Olympics

Orica-GreenEdge still learning in debut Tour

Hoy says a Wiggins win would be greatest ever British sporting achievement

Cavendish adds to impressive Tour de France for Sky

Schleck's Tour B sample also positive for banned substance

Sky's quick exit strategy from the Tour

Wiggins and Froome explain Tour stage 17 final climb debate

Liquigas hopes Tour success could help find sponsor

Froome: Nibali's attacks weren't going anywhere

Wiggins' Tour de France training

Voigt tries to carry on as RadioShack's future seems in doubt

Tour de France 2012: Teams, riders, start list

Tour 2012: Who will win?

Tour de France 2012 start list and withdrawals

Tour de France 2012 team list

Tour de France 2012: Stage reports Stage 19: Wiggins wins time trial to claim Tour de France Stage 18: Cavendish wins Tour stage 18 with irresistible sprint Stage 17: Wiggins step closer to Paris as Valverde wins stage Stage 16: Voeckler the Pyrenean king as he wins in Bagneres de Luchon Stage 15: Fedrigo wins, day off for peloton Stage 14: Sanchez solos to Foix victory to save Rabobank's Tour Stage 13: Greipel survives climb and crosswinds to win third Tour stage Stage 12: Millar wins Tour stage nine years from his last Stage 11: Wiggins strengthens Tour lead as Evans slips back Stage 10: Voeckler wins and saves his Tour Stage nine: Wiggins destroys opposition in Besancon TT Stage eight: Pinot solos to Tour win as Wiggins fights off attacks Stage seven: Wiggins takes yellow as Froome wins stage Stage six: Sagan wins third Tour stage Stage five: Greipel wins again as Cavendish fades Stage four: Greipel wins stage after Cavendish crashes Stage three: Sagan runs away with it in Boulogne Stage two: Cavendish takes 21st Tour stage victory Stage one: Sagan wins at first attempt Prologue: Cancellara wins, Wiggins second

Tour de France 2012: Comment, analysis, blogs

Analysis: What we learned at La Planche des Belles Filles

Analysis: How much time could Wiggins gain in Tour's time trials

CW's Tour de France podcasts

Blog: Tour presentation - chasing dreams and autographs

Comment: Cavendish the climber

Tour de France 2012: Photo galleries

Stage 19 by Graham Watson

Stage 18 by Graham Watson

Stage 17 by Graham Watson

Stage 16 by Graham Watson

Stage 15 by Graham Watson

Stage 14 by Graham Watson

Stage 13 by Graham Watson

Stage 12 by Graham Watson

Stage 11 by Graham Watson

Stage 10 by Graham Watson

Stage nine by Graham Watson

Stage eight by Graham Watson

Stage seven by Graham Watson

Stage six by Graham Watson

Stage five by Graham Watson

Stage four by Graham Watson

Stage three by Graham Watson

Stage two by Andy Jones

Stage two by Graham Watson

Stage one by Graham Watson

Prologue photo gallery by Andy Jones

Prologue photo gallery by Roo Rowler

Prologue photo gallery by Graham Watson

Tour de France 2012: Team presentation

Sky and Rabobank Tour de France recce

Tour de France 2012: Live text coverage

Stage 18 live coverage

Stage 17 live coverage

Stage 16 live coverage

Stage 12 live coverage

Stage 11 live coverage

Stage 10 live coverage

Stage nine live coverage

Stage six live coverage

Stage five live coverage

Stage four live coverage

Stage three live coverage

Cycling Weekly's live text coverage schedule

Tour de France 2012: TV schedule ITV4 live schedule British Eurosport live schedule

Tour de France 2012: Related links

Brits in the Tours: From Robinson to Cavendish

Brief history of the Tour de France

Tour de France 2011: Cycling Weekly's coverage index

1989: The Greatest Tour de France ever

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Nigel Wynn worked as associate editor on CyclingWeekly.com, he worked almost single-handedly on the Cycling Weekly website in its early days. His passion for cycling, his writing and his creativity, as well as his hard work and dedication, were the original driving force behind the website’s success. Without him, CyclingWeekly.com would certainly not exist on the size and scale that it enjoys today. Nigel sadly passed away , following a brave battle with a cancer-related illness, in 2018. He was a highly valued colleague, and more importantly, an exceptional person to work with - his presence is sorely missed. 

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On This Day in 2012 – Bradley Wiggins claims historic Tour de France crown

Bradley Wiggins claimed a historic Tour de France victory on this day in 2012 to become the first British male to win the event.

Wiggins, of Team Sky , finished with a three minute and 21 second cushion ahead of team-mate Chris Froome , with nearest rival Liquigas-Cannondale’s Vincenzo Nibali a further six minutes back.

Victory for Wiggins had all but been assured during the penultimate stage with a superb time-trial success able to give the Londoner an almost unassailable lead before Team Sky toasted a double win at the Champs Elysees after Mark Cavendish clinched a fourth consecutive final-stage triumph.

This maiden Tour de France win had been years in the making for Wiggins, after he finished fourth in 2009, which equalled Robert Millar’s previous British best from 1984.

A broken collarbone two years later meant Wiggins endured heartbreak, but 12 months on and the British cyclist tasted sweet redemption.

Wiggins wore the Yellow jersey for 13 consecutive stages after his third-place finish at stage seven during the high mountains between Tomblaine and La Planche des Belles Filles and never looked back.

I'm just trying to soak it all in. You never imagine it will happen to you but it's amazing

“I don’t know what to say, I’ve had 24 hours for it to soak in,” Wiggins reflected.

“I’m still buzzing from the Champs Elysees, the laps go so quick. We had a mission with Cav and we did it. What a way to finish it off.

“It’s going to take a while. I’m just trying to soak it all in. You never imagine it will happen to you but it’s amazing.”

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Tour de France Stage 20: Bradley Wiggins wins the Tour and leads out Mark Cavendish to fourth Champs-Elysees win

Bradley Wiggins this afternoon crowned the greatest day in British cycling history by not only becoming the first rider from these shores to win the Tour de France, but also leading world champion Mark Cavendish under the flamme rouge to set up the world champion for his fourth consecutive victory on the Champs Elysees, his first there for Team Sky.

When the team was launched in 2010, Dave Brailsford attracted derision when he said its aim was to produce a British winner of the Tour de France within five years. They have achieved that with time to spare, and what's more there is also a British runner-up in the shape of Chris Froome.

With thousands of British fans lining the closing circuit in Paris today, it will be some party in the French capital tonight - Wiggins, Froome and Cavendish however will head to join up with Team GB, with the Olympic road race now less than a week away. With Wiggins today achieving one of the most historic victories ever by a British athlete in any sport, it's a great way to kick off the week in which London 2012 starts.

On a day when the record books were rewritten, one statistic that jumps out is that Cavendish, awarded the accolade of the Tour de France’s greatest ever sprinter a little over a week ago, is now indisputably its most successful.

Not only has he never been beaten on the Champs-Elysées on the four occasions he has finished the Tour de France, but today was his 23rd stage win in the race, putting him ahead of André Darrigade who racked up 22 victories between 1953 and 1964. Cavendish has overhauled that record in half the time.

A man who helped lead Cavendish to one of those Champs-Elysées victories, his former HTC-Columbia team mate George Hincapie, was himself setting a record on this year’s Tour as he made his seventeenth and final participation in the race.

Hincapie, now with BMC Racing, who has completed the race on sixteen of those occasions, was today given the honour of leading the peloton onto the Champs-Elysées for the first of a little over eight laps of frantic racing ahead of the final sprint for the line.

Usually, tradition has it that the maillot jaune’s team leads the man who is the Tour’s winner in waiting onto the famous avenue, but certainly Team Sky weren’t complaining, a helpful nudge in the back from one of their riders helping propel the American to the front of the race for the last time.

Earlier, the peloton had rolled in from Rambouillet, located to the southwest of the French capital, at the usual sedate pace that marks the early part of the final stage of the Tour,

The classification winners – Peter Sagan and Tejay Van Garderen respectively in the green and white jerseys and Thomas Voeckler in polka dot, well, everything – lined up with Wiggins for the obligatory photocall.

Once onto the Rue de Rivoli and the closing circuit, however, racing began in earnest. Joining Hincapie in jumping off the front was another 39-year-old, RadioShack Nissan’s Chris Horner.

A number of other riders managed to jump across to them, the composition of the group kept changing as the peloton snapped at their heels.

Ultimately it was the oldest rider in the race, Horner’s team mate Jens Voigt, who managed to lead the break that stuck, initially attacking with fellow German Danilo Hondo of Lampre-ISD. Lars Bak of Lotto Belisol, who had been in the break of last year’s Tour, also got across, with others attacking behind him.

The group of 11 that eventually formed did their best to stay out as long as they could, but with Liquigas-Cannondale joining Team Sky in leading the chase and Lotto-Belisol and Saxo Bank-Tinkoff Bank also moving to the front of the peloton inside the final lap, the break was doomed and the last escapees were caught with a little under 3 kilometres left.

After emerging from the tunnel beneath the Tuileries gardens and turning hard left at Norwegian Corner opposite the gilded statue of Joan of Arc onto the Rue de Rivoli, Team Sky were tearing along at the front of the peloton hunting for the perfect end to a Tour in which they have provided a tactical masterclass.

Wiggins himself put in a long stint towing the peloton along, peeling off on the Place de la Concorde, rivals all over the road as they tried to find the line through that would somehow give them a chance of challenging Cavendish for the win.

No-one knows the final corner like the Manxman, however, and as he Edvald Boasson Hagen led him out of it, Cavendish came out of the Norwegian’s slipstream and powered home ahead of Sagan and former HTC Highroad team mate, Matt Goss.

In the last three editions of the race, Cavendish’s final day victories, including last year’s confirmation of his points classification victory, have been the high spots of the Tour for British fans.

It’s a sign of the growing strength of British cycling that today’s win was simply icing on the cake to what will go down as the Tour when Bradley Wiggins made history and became the first rider ever to bring the maillot jaune back across the Channel.

Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins, Team Sky:

“It's hard to take in as it happens. Every lap of the Champs-Elysées was goosepimple stuff. We had a job to do with Mark today and we were all motivated to do that so it made it go a lot quicker. The concentration was high and for Mark to finish it off like that... well, it couldn't get any better. 


“I don't actually know what to say that I haven't already said yesterday. It's brilliant. But I'm lost for words. It's a different feeling to 24 hours ago but we've come here and we were committed to what we were doing so there was no sense of, ‘Oh, this is it.' It was so hard once the race started and, right to the end, when I was leading out with a kilometre to go. Right now, at the base of the podium, I'm trying to soak it all in and it's hard to articulate what I'm feeling. It's a strange feeling, really – very strange.


“Now we've come out of our bubble and now we start to realise what it means to all these people who have come over here for the weekend. That turn [near the Arc de Triomphe] was just a sea of Brits and the noise was incredible. It was close to what it was like at the Olympics in Athens when I was coming into the home straight. It's that kind of feeling. It's phenomenal. You couldn't fail to hear it. 


“Tonight I go home. Everything turns to the Olympics and I'll be out on the bike tomorrow and I've got an Olympic time trial to try and win. So that's a higher priority than anything else. It's a little weird to leave Paris without a party because it would be nice to spend time with the team and really enjoy it. This has been – as everyone's seen – such a team effort. Even today, it was an incredible group of guys. I've had the privilege to ride with them for the past three weeks; it's been an absolute honour.


“You imagine that you'd feel an enormous sense of relief but you get there and it's a very strange feeling. I remember watching Cadel win it last year and thinking, ‘God, that must be incredible!' But it happens to you and it doesn't feel as you imagine it to feel. It's a strange sensation. It's very surreal.”

Stage winner Mark Cavendish, Team Sky:

“After getting first and second on GC, winning five stages – or, whatever... how many was it before today – it wasn't going to be an unsuccessful Tour by any means. I'm just happy to get that final win today. We had the whole team on the front and it was an incredible sight. 


“I'm very ready for the Olympics now. Between four of the five guys who are in the Olympic Games squad, there are seven stage wins at the Tour de France so we're going to have an incredibly strong team and we're not just going to the Games to see how it goes. We're fully excited about it and we'll just wait for next Saturday. 


“My legs are really good. You've seen my sprint is really good and I just like getting to the finish. I've got an incredible team to try and do that in London four out of five of us have won stages here... between us we have one out of every three stages of this year's Tour. As a nation in the cycling world, there's nothing better than that.

“It was great for British cycling fans to see what they saw today: guys who are first and second on GC in the Tour de France controlling the peloton and the yellow jersey leading it out at the last kilometre... and me winning for a fourth time here. I'm incredibly proud of an incredible three weeks that came to a close today. 


“It was a sea of blue, white and red flags and it's incredible to see that in Paris.”

Tour de France runner-up, Chris Froome, Team Sky:

“I'm blown away by what we as a team have achieved these last three weeks as a team; it's monumental. Also, for a team that's relatively new to cycling – this is only the third year for Team Sky now – so for us to have two riders standing on the top two steps of the podium on the Champs-Elysées... it's really something special. Hopefully it's set the precedent for us going forward in the future. 


“I surprised myself. I knew I had very good condition coming into this race but you never know where your opposition is at and I was never confident that I would be right at the top of the sport. I'm really happy to be in this position and I hope to keep competing like this in the future. 


“I might not need to change my team to be a winner of the Tour de France. I'd love to win it one day and let's see... I've learned so much this year being right there at the front of the race but not having the pressure of being the leader. I'm going to take that experience away and hopefully learn for the future.


“I never saw this day coming so I couldn't be happier.”

Dave Brailsford, Team Principal at Team Sky:

"I’m very proud. It’s quite emotional. When I got into cycling, nobody else knew about it, but to see all those British flags on the roadside in Paris was phenomenal and I want to thank everybody for coming and thanks for all the support around the world. "It's been an amazing Tour for us. Bradley has had an amazing race and demonstrated he was the best rider in it by finishing with a time trial like that on Saturday.

"We're very lucky to have both Chris and Brad on the same team. This was a Tour that suited Bradley. He's climbing really well, his time trialling's been off the scale and now I think you can see why we stuck with him.

"I couldn't be prouder to have worked with both Bradley and Chris. For Bradley to have won this race, as a British rider - which has never been done before - with a British team with a fantastic British sponsor, it's the stuff of dreams

"I'd never have said that we could do it unless I really believed that we could. A lot of people laughed when we said that we could win this race in five years with a clean British rider. But we were serious about it, we'd done our homework, we knew what Bradley was capable of and what a British team would be capable of - and we set about it.

"From a team perspective we'd like to build on this and I'd like to think this is not just a one-off. The staff and riders should take time and reflect a little bit now but we're building a team for the future here which we want to keep on progressing and coming back to this race to do it all again."

“I can’t allow this achievement to sink in yet. I’m flying straight out of Paris and into the Great Britain training camp in Newport to prepare for the Olympic Games. My thoughts turned to that almost as soon as Brad had stepped off the podium. As I said, everyone else should savour the moment but I can’t wait to get into that Olympic arena now with a British team and show the whole world what we’re made of. “

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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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21 comments.

Amid all the congratulations one man seems to have been left out. James Murdoch, the son of the Devil himself, for signing those big cheques that made this all possible.

I'll get my coat......

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Road.cc are absolutely right to throw up a stub article initially, simply because us lot are going to comment somewhere - yes one of us could create a forum thread, but giving us a story (however brief) to attach them to, then simply updating the text is by far the better approach.

Other than that, I can't help thinking that, apart from this pointless discussion, the overriding sentiment is that we're all chuffed to bits with the success... which suggests a possibly deliberate fly in the ointment - not trolling are you?

(And if he is, the rest of us need to stop feeding him)

Oh and just a very quick word on the Sun's cycling coverage.

This article:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/4435008/Sprint-king-Mark-Cave...

Lifts quotes attributed to Gianni Bugno from a spoof article on Cyclismas (you'd have thought the other 'quotes' might have set the alarm bells ringing:

http://www.cyclismas.com/2012/07/bugno-declares-cavendish-a-disgrace-to-...

What we've found works best for us, and for the site's users from what we've heard, is a couple of paragraphs summarising the race - who won, GC, major incidents etc - that goes up as soon as possible after the stage, then add in the full report once that's written, then the results and reaction later.

As you noticed, the full report did mention Darrigade's record being beaten, and also that Cav has never been beaten on the Champs (the only record Cav breaks for wins there is his own - only one other rider has won on the Champs more than once - Abdoujaparov, and not in consecutive years).

No doubt Cav remains King of the Champs, but worth remembering Darrigade for example never got the chance to race there - finish has only been there since 1975, by which point Jens Voigt had already learnt his first words. 'Shut up legs," we're guessing.

It would have been difficult to kick off this article without mentioning that the race had just ended with its first British winner. It would have been difficult to start it without mentioning Cavendish. That's why they're both mentioned in the headline and the opening paragraph.

Hope that helps explain.

Well as a transplanted Canadian living in the States, with Brit parents, it's a lot to digest! I love it just as I loved it when Armstrong "pulled the peloton" of American cycling into the spotlight. To many, this may have been "The Snore de France" but I thought it was full of emotional uplifting moments, from Sagan's banging his fist onto the table of (potential) greatness to Voekler's trademark doggedness (is he not always amazing?) to T-P (the next great French hope?) to Georgie getting a hand on the back and shoved to the sharp end to lead the gruppo onto Rivoli...this was a great Tour. Maybe not the toe to toe fisticuffs of this year's Giro, but...it was a grand race for sure. Chapeau's to all the riders.

@PaulVWatts - using an article from the Sun to prove your point shows that your dredging the bottom of the barrel - it's a comic for crying out loud!!! You should try reading a newspaper for a change rather than a gossip rag. It only proves that what you know about cycling could be written on the back of a stamp.........with a marker!

LoL the only reason that article was in the sun is because of Cav's GF.

Well done all of the Sky boys as well as Dave Millar - Looking good for the Olympic Road race.

I'm not diminishing Wiggins achievement but I think the press putting him above Cavendish in the ranks of British cycling history is ridiculous. I never thought I'd recommend a Sun article but try this one which I think is more appropriate than the one above for todays race

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/4443801/Mark-Cavendish-storms...

Allez les rosbifs!

What an achievement! Also loving the fact that the last 3 stages all dominated by brits - and every rider in the Olympic squad has won a stage in this years TDF (alright, except Stannard, but he's doing well elsewhere).

Well done guys. Great work.

I'm getting a bit sick of the Wiggo hype. Whats missing above is Mark Cavendish is now the most succesful sprinter in the history of the Tour de France and the fourth most most succesful stage winner in its history.No mention of that above. Also no mention of the fact he's never lost on the Champs Elysees. Where are you getting your cycling news from the Daily Mail?

PaulVWatts wrote: I'm getting a bit sick of the Wiggo hype. Whats missing above is Mark Cavendish is now the most succesful sprinter in the history of the Tour de France and the fourth most most succesful stage winner in its history.No mention of that above. Also no mention of the fact he's never lost on the Champs Elysees. Where are you getting your cycling news from the Daily Mail?

True. But that doesn't diminish Wiggo's achievement.

S'good day for British cycling!

Woah there, so what about all the hype Cavandish gets over Chris Hoy etc?

Maybe it's like... Wiggos time? Cav has gotten enough coverage over the years and has not won as many stages as before in this year's tour - does it make more sense now?

Awesome. Just fantastic. Magnificent achievement by everyone involved, on and off the bike, but especially the man himself.

Well done Wiggo.

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Where are they now bradley wiggins’ tour de france winning team 10 years on, it has been 10 years since bradley wiggins became the first british tour de france winner. what happened next for the members of sky's 2012 tour-winning squad..

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This summer marks a full decade since Bradley Wiggins became the first ever British winner of the men’s Tour de France .

Before the British press dust off their Union Jack bunting, sideburns become momentarily and inexplicably fashionable again, and we ponder whatever happened to such backroom staff as Geert Leinders, we look back at the all-conquering Sky Procycling team from the 2012 Tour de France and what came next for the nine-man team.

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The team was founded at the start of 2010 with the ambition of winning the Tour de France with a British rider within five years. Those plans looked more like a dream when Wiggins cracked horribly in 2010 and the team was unable to muster a GC challenge. A year later Wiggins looked in form but a crash took him out of the race on the road to Châteauroux.

However, by 2012 the British outfit had mastered the arts of marginal gains, and had set about dominating the pro scene with ruthless efficiency.

101 – Bradley Wiggins

Coming into the 2012 Tour de France the British rider was among the firm favorites for the overall win. His early season form had been impeccable, with wins in Paris-Nice, the Tour de Romandie, and the Critérium du Dauphiné.

After finishing second in the Tour de France prologue in Liege behind Fabian Cancellara, the Team Sky leader edged into the maillot jaune at La Blanche des Belles Filles on stage 7 and never looked back.

There was the spat with Chris Froome, and there was Wiggins’ astonishing press conference in which anyone who dared to question the validity of relevant performances was deemed c***ts or w****rs. Or both.

In general it was a comprehensive and clear cut Tour win, with Wiggins leading a one-two in the GC and a six stage haul for Sky Procycling.

• Bradley Wiggins regrets fall out with Chris Froome after 2012 Tour de France
• VeloNews stories of the decade: Team Sky’s Tour de France domination

After his Tour win, Wiggins was never really the same in terms of stage racing performances. Understandably he’d won the biggest bike race in the world, and the sacrifices needed to reach that level weren’t on his agenda going forward. Just as well really given how quickly and mercilessly he was replaced as the team’s number one a year later.

There were still plenty of glittering moments, with a valiant crack at Paris-Roubaix, an hour record, another couple of Olympic golds, and a world title in the Madison alongside Mark Cavendish, before retirement would eventually come in 2016.

He would also found a development team, a bike brand, have his name linked to a tax avoidance scheme, and have two companies liquidated.

The revelations brought to the wider public by the Fancy Bear hackers surrounding the use of corticosteroid triamcinolone certainly took the gloss off Wiggins’ achievements — even if he didn’t break any rules — while we’re still waiting for the now 42-year-old to “have his say” when it comes to “jiffy-gate”.

Now a television commentator, Wiggins jostles between residing as an out-and-out pundit and being an in-race moto correspondent for Eurosport . He’s rather refreshing in both roles, and when he speaks about racing and tactics he’s worth listening to. He remains a cult hero to many.

102 – Edvald Boasson Hagen

The Norwegian had been Sky Procycling’s savior in 2011 when he won two stages following Wiggins’ departure from the race in an ambulance. Often labeled as a misused talent at the British team, it’s worth remembering that the now 35-year-old won 25 races in his four years on the squad, and played a role in two Tour de France wins.

He also never developed into a pure monument contender, regardless of the team he raced for, so putting all the blame on Sky Procycling for his lack of success seems somewhat unwarranted. Admittedly, the incredible trajectory that he first displayed around 2009 didn’t carry on but that happens, and to be honest, Peter Sagan came through a few years later and basically raised the bar for all Boasson Hagen-like riders for an entire generation.

At the Tour in 2012, Boasson Hagen was an incredibly solid performer. He was still in the group on the critical stage to Peyragudes when Sky Procycling faced pressure from their rivals, and he was a key rider on all the flat stages too.

After leaving Sky Procycling at the end of 2014 Boasson Hagen went on to spend six years at Dimension Data, where he was underrated as a leader, before beginning a slow and steady decline into his mid-30s. Now at TotalEnergies, he’s actually found some decent form as his career approaches an Indian summer, and he could be in line for a final crack at the Tour before a likely retirement at the end of the next season.

On his day, Boasson Hagen was a force to be reckoned with and his career will probably only receive the credit it deserves once he hangs up his wheels. Speak to any of his teammates over the years and they’ll all rate him as both an athlete and a human being, which is probably all that really matters at the end of the day.

103 – Mark Cavendish

The sprinter was signed to Sky after the demise of HTC-Highroad and it looked like a marriage made in heaven with the fastest man on two wheels linking up with many of his teammates and support staff from the British Cycling scene.

However, by the end of the Tour de France, team boss Dave Brailsford was willing to let Cavendish depart mid-contract. The 2012 season certainly wasn’t a failure, and Cavendish still totted up three Tour stage wins and had the luxury of having the maillot jaune lead him out on the Champs Elysées.

He was a solid teammate, too, having dropped a bit of weight in order to help his team on the shorter climbs. Sky simply wanted to concentrate on stage racing and that left Cavendish in a tight spot.

The one-year spell on Sky would eventually make way for a stint for Patrick Lefevere’s team at the end of the season before another move to Dimension Data. Cavendish’s career then went through a complete reformation after a long period of illness and struggles that almost left him without a team at the end of 2020, but in 2021 he rolled back the years to return to Lefevere and take four Tour stage wins and a second green jersey.

Still racing, the 37-year-old is unlikely to make the Tour de France team for this year, but he still harbors hopes of beating Eddy Merckx’s 34-stage win record with the pair currently tied neck and neck. The relationship between Cavendish and Wiggins has been fascinating to follow over the years too, with the pair falling out but still gravitating towards each other.

104 – Bernhard Eisel

Eisel followed Cavendish to Sky after the demise of Bob Stapleton’s HTC-Highroad empire and the amicable Austrian made an instant impression with back-to-back appearances at the Giro and the Tour in 2012. Aged 31 at the time, Eisel had three main jobs at the Tour: sticking with Cavendish; providing cover in the leadouts, and supporting the team’s GC ambitions in his ninth appearance at the race.

He did his job without fuss or drama and was rewarded with a contract extension, although he would later call missing the 2013 Tour selection the biggest disappointment of his career at the time.

Eisel would carry on in the pro ranks right until the end of the 2019 season, coming back from a serious head injury in 2018 and forming part of the core squad at Dimension Data. Since hanging up his wheels he has worked within the commentary fraternity and was at the Tour de France last year before taking up a DS role at Bora-Hansgrohe at the start of 2022.

His skills as a rider, whether he was racing full gas at the classics, dragging Cavendish over the mountains, or backing up Wiggins, make him a natural character for a director’s role.

“I’m half Bora and half Eurosport GCN . I did the Giro for Eurosport Germany including in the studio, I’ll do the Tour on the ground as always for Eurosport GCN and finish off the season the Vuelta as a DS,” he told VeloNews in a text message just a few days ago.

105 – Chris Froome

Heading into the 2012 Tour de France, the consensus was that Wiggins was the outright leader and that Froome was a worthy backup having gone through something of a metamorphosis as a rider nine months earlier at the Vuelta a España.

Froome won at La Blanche des Belles Filles on stage 7 as Wiggins raced into yellow during the first week, and all looked rosy but controversy erupted during what was essentially a one-sided Tour when Froome initially didn’t wait for Wiggins at Peyragudes despite Sean Yates’ vocal interventions down the race radio for him to slow.

Tensions were made worse when Froome declared that had the strength to win the race, when he said. “I know that I can win this Tour – but not with Sky. We made our plans around Wiggins and everyone respects that.”

Froome had already provided proof of his superior climbing powers at La Toussuire earlier in the race, and Wiggins initially tried to insinuate that he would work for Froome in the future, but behind the scenes, tensions flared and according to Yates, Wiggins even threatened to quit the race while in yellow.

The relationship between Wiggins and Froome soured from that Tour onwards and the pair couldn’t even be in the same room as each other, let alone the same roster.

We all know what happened next. Froome got the nod for team leadership in 2013, and won the race four times, while Wiggins picked off other targets as his motivation for grand tours waned.

Froome’s career hasn’t been without controversy either. He was eventually cleared after exceeding the therapeutic threshold for an asthma drug at the Vuelta in 2017, while the UCI would later reform its protocols after the British rider had a TUE fast tracked in 2014 ahead of the Tour de Romandie.

Froome is still kicking around in the pro ranks at the grand old age of 37 having come through a life-threatening crash at the Dauphiné in 2019. Away from the peloton, he has multiple business interests including Factor, and is likely to race the Tour de France this summer.

106 – Christian Knees

A hugely respected domestique, Knees moved over to Sky at the start of 2011 after Milram shut up shop. He would finish his career with 20 grand tour starts and 19 finishes — an incredible feat for a rider of any generation.

He raced just three Tours for the British team with starts in 2011, 2012, and 2017, and although he didn’t win a great deal as a bike racer, he garnered a reputation as a hard worker who dedicated his services to others.

Knees eventually retired in 2020 and took up coaching as well as a DS role at Ineos Grenadiers, where he remains to this day. Like Eisel, he’s just made for the job.

107 – Richie Porte

In 2012 the young Australian was in his first season at Sky after moving over from Bjarne Riis’ Saxo squad at the end of 2011.

Porte and Sky couldn’t have hoped for a better start in 2012 with the Tasmanian winning his first stage race on the team at the Volta ao Algarve, and then providing vital teamwork at races such as Paris-Nice, Romandie, and the Dauphiné. He was pivotal again at the Tour de France, often the last Sky rider with Wiggins and Froome in the mountains, and driving the pace at several key points, including on the climb to La Blanche des Belles Filles where his work helped to distance the likes of Samuel Sanchez, Maxime Monfort, and Andreas Klöden to reduce the maillot jaune group to just eight riders.

When Froome took over as the team’s primary GC leader in 2013 Porte moved up a rung on the ladder.

Porte later branched out, first as a GC candidate at Sky and then at BMC Racing. At one point he was pound-for-pound the best weeklong stage racer on the planet but his best result came at the 2020 Tour when he finally cracked it and made it onto the podium behind Tadej Pogačar and Primož Roglič. Without bad luck and crashes, especially during his time at BMC Racing, he probably would have achieved a grand tour podium much earlier.

The Australian is now back at Ineos Grenadiers, where he has settled into the familiar role of an experienced domestique. Married and with a young family, he’s set to retire at the end of the season. A move back to Australia is on the cards in 2023.

108 – Michael Rogers

Rogers is the third rider on the list who moved to Sky after the collapse of HTC, and he was certainly the most accomplished in terms of stage racing credentials who made the switch. He was integral when it came to tapping out Wiggins’ preferred pace in the mountains, often setting up the malliot jaune group before Porte took over.

At the end of 2012 things started to become a little more complicated. In the wake of the USADA investigation into Lance Armstrong’s and US Postal’s doping practices, Sky panicked themselves into an unrealistic and frankly absurd zero tolerance policy that left a chunk of staff out of jobs.

Rogers left for Saxo Bank at the end of the year, and while the team claimed that the two incidents were unrelated Rogers was forced to defend his previous relationship with former coach Michele Ferrari, stating that he’d only used the doctor for training purposes and that doping never came up in conversation. Rogers would also state that the move from Sky to Saxo Bank was purely a financial decision.

A positive test for clenbuterol followed but he was later cleared by the UCI because there was a “significant probability that the presence of clenbuterol may have resulted from the consumption of contaminated meat.”

He would then win three grand tour stages in one season in 2014 but a heart condition would ultimately end his career in 2016.

After retiring, Rogers moved into management, first at VirtuGo, and then within the Dimension Data ranks when Bjarne Riis took on a role there in 2020. That gig ended with Riis leaving and Rogers taking up a role at the UCI where he is now the head of road & innovation.

109 – Kanstantsin Siutsou

Like Rogers, Cavendish, and Eisel, the Belarussian jumped from HTC at the end of 2011 and linked up with Dave Brailsford’s team for the following season. He lasted four years on Sky but just two stages at the Tour in 2012 due to a crash that left him with a broken leg.

He came back and raced his final Tour de France the following year before concentrating on the Giro and Vuelta as his career moved in another direction.

He had a year at Dimension Data followed by 18 months at Bahrain Merida. However, time on that team was cut short due to the rather unfortunate inconvenience of a whopping four-year doping ban after testing positive for banned blood booster Erythropoietin (EPO).

The ban ends on September 4, 2022 in case you’re interested. At the time said that he was “looking to process, and my liberation” but that talk quickly died down. According to his Instagram account, he’s now a co-founder of Velotooler, an app that matches bike riders with local mechanics.

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Bradley Wiggins

Points per specialty

• 274 Onedayraces
• 1639 Climber
• All time 184
• Visits: ▼49  this week

Top results

•   GC Tour de France   ('12)
• 2x   GC Critérium du Dauphiné   ('12, '11)
•   GC Paris-Nice   ('12)
•   Olympic Games ME - ITT   ('12)
•   GC Tour de Romandie   ('12)
• 2x   stage Tour de France   ('12)
•   World Championships ME - ITT   ('14)
•   GC Amgen Tour of California   ('14)
• 2x   stage Critérium du Dauphiné Libéré   ('12, '07)
•   stage Giro d'Italia   ('10)
• 2nd  GC La Vuelta ciclista a España   ('11)
•   GC Tour of Britain   ('13)
• Retired since 2016-12-31
• 2016 Team Wiggins (CT)
• 2015 Team Wiggins (CT) as from 13/04
• 2015 Team Sky (WT) until 12/04
• 2014 Team Sky (WT)
• 2013 Sky Procycling (WT)
• 2012 Sky Procycling (WT)
• 2011 Sky Procycling (WT)
• 2010 Sky Procycling (WT)
• 2009 Team Garmin - Slipstream (WT)
• 2008 Team Columbia (PT)
• 2007 Cofidis, le Crédit par Téléphone (PT)
• 2006 Cofidis, le Crédit par Téléphone (PT)
• 2005 Crédit Agricole (PT)
• 2004 Crédit Agricole (TT1)
• 2003 Fdjeux.com (TT1)
• 2002 La Française des Jeux (TT1)
• 2001 Linda McCartney - Jacob's Creek - Jaguar (TT1)

Key statistics

• 35 Wins GC (8) Oneday races (6) ITT (24)
• 13 Grand tours tour (6) giro (6) vuelta(1)
• 22 Classics RBX(8) MSR(5) RVV(7) LBL(1) LOM(1)

PCS Ranking position per season

• Gary Wiggins  (Father)
• Ben Wiggins  (Son)

H2H Suggestions

• EVANS Cadel
• NIBALI Vincenzo
• FROOME Chris
• VAN DEN BROECK Jurgen
• VAN GARDEREN Tejay

Grand Tours

• Vuelta a España

Major Tours

• Volta a Catalunya
• Tour de Romandie
• Tour de Suisse
• Itzulia Basque Country
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• Ronde van Vlaanderen

Championships

• European championships

Top classics

• Omloop Het Nieuwsblad
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'I wasn't aware of this mess until I was deep into retirement' - Bradley Wiggins explains financial challenges that led to bankruptcy

Speaking on the WEDU podcast, Wiggins offers a candid insight into his financial situation and his financial oversight during his racing career

Bradley Wiggins has offered the most detailed insight so far into the financial troubles that led to a declaration of bankruptcy, suggesting the issues took hold during his racing career when he admits assuming money “was going to be there forever.”

Speaking on WEDŪ's The Forward w/Lance Armstrong podcast, after being a guest commentator throughout WEDŪ's Tour de France coverage, Wiggins said “One of the things I regret is I never paid attention to my financial affairs when I was racing.

“Which is one of the things that happens to athletes you know, you make a lot of money and if you haven't got your eyes on it, people take advantage.”

Wiggins claims he now recognises that his oversight as a rider played a part in his reportedly dire financial situation. “But I realise now the importance… I should have paid more attention to it,” he said. “Because you get to the point then where I'm in this situation now but because of the mess that's been created, and because it's been rumbling on for quite a few years now this hasn't just happened overnight.”

Specifically, Wiggins suggested that the financial structure through which his businesses were constructed made him liable for losses beyond his knowledge.

Company structure and debts

“I was made bankrupt through a company,” Wiggins explained.

“I had three companies – my image rights company that handles all my image rights, endorsement deals. “So connected to that I joined XIX Entertainment, Simon Fuller, in 2014. And they set up various joint ventures with various clubs and companies, drinks suppliers, all different things, whatever endorsements. “Off the bottom of that, the third company was a cycling team called New Cycling Limited, which was Team Wiggins, which was a team that was set up to facilitate the national track program, which was team pursuit, my last cycling career goal in Rio. That team should never have made a loss, it should never have made a profit, it was purely to pay the riders of the team, their wages and handle the budget.

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“Now that that was done, as we see now through the lawyers, that was done purposefully. So the top company would always take the hit if there was any trouble with the other ones. 

"They should have been separate companies."

According to Companies House Wiggins has been a director of four companies - New Cycling Limited, WIGGINS RIGHTS LIMITED, WSW Cycling Limited and TWOFOLD FIRST SERVICES LLP. The latter is a Tax advisory partnership which Wiggins resigned from in 2013, while WSW Cycling Limited was dissolved in 2013.

Wiggins claims that Team Wiggins overspent against a planned budget of £650,000. “In year one, for six riders it spent a million so I had to prop that team up with my own money from Wiggins Rights," the Tour de France winner explained.

“So there was a lot of money coming down from the top company to prop up these ventures that weren't making any money,” he said, while also pinpointing management costs as a source of financial loss.

“The top company took the biggest hits when it ran up a debt of nearly one and a half million, which got given to me as a director's loan. But I wasn't the director at the time and I had to be made a director to take the loan without my knowledge. I was still riding my bike at the time. So it's a complete mess and I wasn't aware of this mess until I was deep into retirement."

Sky employment and tabloid intrusion

On top of the impact of financial losses that subsidiaries bore, Wiggins revealed details of an employment case which reclassified him as an employee.

“When I left [Team] Sky, because I was a British resident, I never lived abroad – the tax laws changed,” Wiggins said.

“And when I started with Team Sky, as most cyclists, I was self-employed with an image rights company. Towards the end of my tenure with Team Sky, they were involved in a two-year case with HMRC for everyone who worked at Sky to fight whether they were deemed employed by Sky.

“I was acting as a witness for Sky in that case against HMRC and spent an enormous amount of money on legal fees because ... if I was deemed employed, I'd have had to back pay taxes and National Insurance etc.”

Unfortunately for Wiggins, he claims the case found him to be an employee. “In the end, I was deemed employed so I had to go back five years and pay all the taxes and every bits and bobs and pieces. And Sky knew that was happening from the day I signed with them.”

While the tax liability and company structure may not explain Wiggins’ financial situation in full, he argues that everything will come to light, “This will all come out in the wash over due process in the next few years. It's just going to be a hell of a headache to get right.”

In recent months, countless stories have emerged detailing Wiggins’ apparent destitution, with some alleging he was ‘couch-surfing’. Wiggins was quick to dispel those claims.

“That's where the sensationalism came,” he said.

The Olympic champion went on to criticise the role of tabloids in what he described as “harassment of every member of my family and trying to dig up dirt and stories and things like this just to add weight to the fact that they think you're done and dusted.”

He detailed an intense focus on his downfall, alongside a suggestion that journalists had an inside knowledge of his financial affairs. ”They were aware of it before it even went on the insolvency register, which shows that there must have been someone inside that leaked it to the press.”

Wiggins believed his situation would reach a positive resolution despite the negative press he has received.

”It will be alright,” he said. “But that's the first time I've commented on it since that happened.”

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Peter Stuart has been the editor of Cyclingnews since March 2022, overseeing editorial output across all of Cyclingnews' digital touchpoints.

Before joining Cyclingnews, Peter was the digital editor of Rouleur magazine. Starting life as a freelance feature writer, with bylines in The Times and The Telegraph, he first entered cycling journalism in 2012, joining Cyclist magazine as staff writer. Peter has a background as an international rower, representing Great Britain at Under-23 level and at the Junior Rowing World Championships.

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Niewiadoma wins women's Tour de France by 4 seconds overall after Alpe d'Huez thriller

Ottawa cyclist just 3rd canadian to finish in the top 10.

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Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma did just enough in a thrilling battle with rival Demi Vollering on the iconic Alpe d'Huez to win the women's Tour de France by four seconds overall.

Vollering was part of a breakaway Sunday with fellow Dutch rider Pauliena Rooijakkers after the Col du Glandon. She accelerated powerfully in the final stretch to win the eighth and final stage.

But Niewiadoma finished fourth to narrowly clinch her first Tour title, with an overall time of 24 hours, 36 minutes, 7 seconds.

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Niewiadoma Wins Women's Tour De France by 4 Seconds Overall After Alpe D’Huez Thriller

Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma has done just enough in a thrilling battle with Demi Vollering on the iconic Alpe d’Huez to win the women’s Tour de France by four seconds overall

Niewiadoma Wins Women's Tour De France by 4 Seconds Overall After Alpe D’Huez Thriller

Peter Dejong

Tour de France Women's winner Katarzyna Niewiadoma of Poland, wearing the overall leader's yellow jersey, celebrates on the podium after the eighth stage of the Tour de France Women cycling race with start in Le Grand-Bornand and finish in Alpe d'Huez, France, Sunday, Aug. 18, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

ALPE D'HUEZ, France (AP) — Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma did just enough in a thrilling battle Sunday with rival Demi Vollering on the iconic Alpe d’Huez to win the women’s Tour de France by four seconds overall.

It was the smallest margin of victory in any Tour de France edition, including the men's race.

“It’s so crazy, this Tour has been a crazy roller-coaster,” Niewiadoma said after the eighth and final stage. “I’ve had bad moments. I hated every moment of this last climb, but when I heard that I had won the Tour de France, I could not believe it.”

Niewiadoma sat on the road after finishing, exhausted and waiting to get the confirmation that she had won. When the news finally came, she lifted her bike in triumph and appeared overwhelmed by the magnitude of her achievement.

Knowing she still trailed Niewiadoma overall, Vollering had been part of a breakaway Sunday with fellow Dutch rider Pauliena Rooijakkers earlier in the race. Vollering accelerated powerfully in the final stretch to win the stage.

But the gap wasn't quite enough as Niewiadoma finished fourth to narrowly clinch her first Tour title, with an overall time of 24 hours, 36 minutes, 7 seconds. Vollering's final time was 24:36:11.

Vollering, the defending champion, had fought back after suffering a crash in the fifth stage. She was inconsolable when she learned she had finished second overall after starting the stage more than a minute behind Niewiadoma overall.

“Right now I feel really bitter that I only lost by four seconds,” Vollering said. “It's really painful to know that I did not do enough today.”

Rooijakkers, also a title contender, finished third in the overall standings at only 10 seconds behind Niewiadoma.

AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports

Copyright 2024 The  Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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